Contents

[First line] Doctor Jones, again we see there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away. And you thought I'd given up!

[to Indy] You and I are very much alike. Archeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am a shadowy reflection of you. And it would take only a nudge to make you like me, to push you out of the light.

Look at this. [holds up a silver pocket watch] It's worthless. Ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless! Like the Ark. Men will kill for it; men like you and me.

[after trapping Indy in the Well of Souls] You're about to become a permanent addition to this archaeological find. Who knows, in a thousand years, even you may be worth something!

[to Colonel Dietrich] Let me ask you this: Would you feel more comfortable opening the Ark in Berlin for your Führer? Finding out, only then, if the sacred pieces of the Covenant are inside? Knowing, only then, whether you've accomplished your mission and obtained the one true Ark?

Eaton: Professor of Archaeology, expert on the occult and...how does one say it? Obtainer of rare antiquities.

Jones: That's one way of saying it. Why don't you sit down?

Colonel Musgrove: Yes, you're a man of many talents. Now, you studied under Professor Ravenwood at the University of Chicago?

Jones: Yes, I did.

Eaton: And you have no idea of his present whereabouts? [Indy and Marcus exchange a look]

Jones: Ah, just rumours, really. Somewhere in Asia, I think. I haven't spoken to him for ten years; we were friends but...we had a bit of a falling out, I'm afraid.

Musgrove: Dr. Jones, you must understand this is all strictly confidential. Yesterday afternoon, our European sections intercepted a... a German communiqué that was sent from Cairo to Berlin. Now, to Cairo--

Eaton: See, over the last two years, the Nazis have had teams of archaeologists running around the world looking for all kinds of religious artifacts. Hitler's a nut on the subject. He's crazy. He's obsessed with the occult. And right now, apparently, there's some kind of German archaeological dig going on in the desert outside of Cairo.

Musgrove: Now we've got some information here, but we can't make anything out of it, and maybe you can. [he reads the communiqué] Tanis development proceeding. Acquire headpiece, Staff of Ra, Abner Ravenwood, U.S.

Jones: The Nazis have discovered Tanis.

Eaton: Just what does that mean to you, uh, Tanis?

Marcus Brody: Well, it-- [Jones interrupts him]

Jones: The city of Tanis is one the possible resting places of the Lost Ark.

Musgrove: The Lost Ark?

Jones: Yeah, the Ark of the Covenant. The chest the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments.

Eaton: What do you mean, 'commandments'? You're talking about the Ten Commandments?

Jones: Yes, the actual Ten Commandments. The original stone tablets Moses brought down from Mount Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing. Either of you guys ever go to Sunday school?

Musgrove: Well, I--

Jones: Oh, look. The Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them in the Ark. When they settled in Canaan, they put the Ark in a place called the Temple of Solomon.

Marcus: In Jerusalem.

Jones: Where it stayed for many years. Until, all of a sudden, whoosh, it's gone.

Eaton: Where?

Jones: Well, nobody knows where or when.

Marcus: However, an Egyptian pharaoh--

Jones: Shishak.

Marcus: Yes... invaded the city of Jerusalem around about 980 B.C., and he may have taken the Ark back to the city of Tanis and hidden it in a secret chamber called the Well of Souls.

Eaton: Secret chamber?

Marcus: However, about a year after the pharaoh had returned to Egypt, the city of Tanis was consumed by the desert in a sandstorm that lasted a whole year. Wiped clean by the wrath of God.[the agents exchange looks]

Musgrove: Obviously, we've come to the right men. Now, you seem to know, uh, all about this Tanis, then.

Jones: No, no, not really. Ravenwood's the real expert. Abner did the first serious work on Tanis. Collected some of its relics. It was his obsession. But he never found the city.

Eaton: Frankly, we're somewhat suspicious of Mr. Ravenwood. An American being mentioned so prominently in a secret Nazi cable.

Marcus: Oh, rubbish. Ravenwood's no Nazi.

Musgrove: Well, what do the Nazis want him for, then?

Jones: Well, obviously, the Nazis are looking for the headpiece to the Staff of Ra and they think Abner's got it.

Eaton: What exactly is a headpiece to the Staff of Ra?

Jones: Well a staff is just a stick. [gestures with his hands to convey the length of the staff] I don't know, about this big, nobody really knows for sure how high... and it's... [he draws a diagram on a blackboard] It's capped with an elaborate headpiece in the shape of the sun with a crystal in the center. And what you did was, you take the staff to a special room in Tanis, a map room with a miniature of the city all laid out on the floor, and if you put the staff in a certain place, at a certain time of day, the sun shone through here — and made a beam that came down on the floor here. And gave you the exact location of the Well of Souls.

Musgrove: Where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, right?

Jones: Which is exactly what the Nazis are looking for.

Eaton: What does this Ark look like?

Jones: There's a picture of it right here. [he opens a Bible to show the image of the Israelites holding the Ark above them. There are great jets of light emanating from the Ark piercing the ranks of the opposing army surrounding them, representing them in various states of agony or death.] That's it.

Marcus: Oh, yes. The Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it ... is invincible.

Indiana Jones: Belloq.

René Belloq: Good afternoon, Dr. Jones.

Jones: I ought to kill you right now.

Belloq: Not a very private place for a murder.

Jones: Well, these guys don't care if we kill each other. They're not going to interfere in our business.

Belloq: It was not I who brought the girl into this business. Please, sit down before you fall down. We can at least behave like civilized people. [Indy then sits down while the monkey then crawls off his shoulder.] I see your taste in friends remains consistent. How odd that it should end this way for us, after so many stimulating encounters. I almost regret it. Where shall I find a new adversary so close to my own level?

Jones: Try the local sewer.

Belloq: You and I are very much alike. Archaeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the purer faith. Out methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am a shadowy refelction of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me, to push you out of the light.

Jones: Now you're getting nasty.

Belloq: You know it's true. How nice. Look at this. [holds out a pocket watch.] It's worthless. Ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless...like the Ark. Men will kill for it. Men like you and me.

Jones: What about your boss, der Führer? I thought he was waiting to take possession.

Belloq: All in good time. When I am finished with it. Jones, do you realize what the Ark is? It's a transmitter. It's a radio for speaking to God. And it's within my reach.

Jones: You want to talk to God? Let's go see Him together. I've got nothing better to do.

[Indy and Sallah are peering down upon opening the Well of Souls]

Sallah: Indy, why does the floor move?

Indiana Jones: Give me your torch.

[Indy takes the torch and drops it in revealing hundreds of snakes all over the floor of the Well of Souls]

Indy: Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?

Sallah: Asps... very dangerous. You go first.

Indiana Jones: I'm going after that truck.

Sallah: How?

Jones: I don't know, I'm making this up as I go.

Marion Ravenwood: You're not the man I knew ten years ago.

Indiana Jones: It's not the years, honey; it's the mileage.

Indiana Jones: Hello! [Indy is aiming a grenade launcher at the Ark from a ridge above]

Colonel Dietrich: Dr. Jones. Surely you don't think you can escape from this island?

Jones: That depends on how reasonable we're all willing to be! All I want is the girl!

Dietrich: If we refuse?

Jones: Then your Führer has no prize.

Belloq: [Ordering the soldiers] Okay, stand back. All of you, stand back. Get back. [to Jones] Okay, Jones. You win. Blow it up. [some soldiers move in the way of the Ark, but Belloq holds a machine gun to them and they move back] Yes, blow it up! Blow it back to God. All your life has been spent in pursuit of archaeological relics. Inside the Ark are treasures beyond your wildest aspirations. You want to see it open as well as I. Indiana, we are simply passing through history. This... [gestures to the Ark] This is history. Do as you will. [Indy lowers the grenade launcher and four soldiers appear above him]

Marcus Brody: Where is the Ark?

Major Eaton: I thought we'd settled that. The Ark is somewhere very safe.

Indiana Jones: From whom?

Marcus: The Ark is a source of unspeakable power and it has to be researched!

Eaton: And it will be, I assure you, Doctor Brody, Doctor Jones. We have top men working on it right now.

Jones: Who?!

Eaton: Top... men.

Marion Ravenwood: Hey, what happened? You don't look very happy.

Indiana Jones: Fools. Bureaucratic fools!

Marion: What'd they say?

Jones: They don't know what they've got there.

Marion: Well, I know what I've got here. Come on. I'll buy you a drink. You know, a drink?